When a gift is more than a gift

Have you ever received a gift you’re not quite sure what to make of? That’s happened to me very infrequently. I’m usually an easy person to please. And to me the thought counts just as much as the item at hand.

But what about Tweetie Bird?

I received this gold plated ring from someone my ex-husband knew in Hong Kong. One evening my ex came home from a dinner around Chinese New Year and handed me a box from this associate (someone I never met). “For you,” he said.

Hong Kong gold shops are famous for their variety of goods. So I figured it had to be something I would enjoy. I’m not opposed to cuteness when it comes to jewelry or clothes. But Tweetie Bird? Tweetie Bird?

I couldn’t do it. No matter how much I forced myself to wear this ring, I just couldn’t stomach it. Hello Kitty? No problem. Snoopy? Sure. It’s not that I don’t like Tweetie. I do. Or rather, I have nothing against him or her. See, I don’t even know its gender. Clearly we were not what people call a good fit.

Yet somehow throughout the years, the moves across the Pacific and later across the US and finally across the Chicago metropolitan area, Tweetie Bird has stayed with me. I’ve misplaced many things I still crave today, so why has Tweetie remained?

And even as it sits in a plastic, faux lacquer jewelry box, I somehow can’t part with it.

Many—and they are all from my children! The surface of my dresser is covered with cute little, cheap and gaudy knick-knacks that serve no purpose other than to make me smile because I’m sure they always thought they were buying something very special that showed just how much they love me!